A new program at the University of Delaware will provide graduate students with tuition support and stipends to pursue ideas for entrepreneurial solutions to environmental problems. The Ratcliffe Eco-Entrepreneurship Fellows Program (REEF@UD) is a partnership between the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and Horn Entrepreneurship. It was made possible by a gift from the Ratcliffe Foundation and will launch in 2021.

The program was announced during an Eco-Entrepreneurship Forum held by CEOE and moderated by Cristina Archer, faculty director of the undergraduate Eco-Entrepreneurship Certificate program. At the forum, CEOE faculty and a Ph.D. candidate discussed how they had worked to commercialize inventions and discoveries they made at the University, and students learned about opportunities like the certificate and REEF that could help them work towards the same goal.

The first REEF@UD students will be selected through a pitch competition at the end of Spring 2021, following a class taught by David Lawson, who is overseeing the launch of the fellowship program. Learn more about the REEF@UD program online, or watch the entire Eco-Entrepreneurship Forum below.